Twitter has just launched an expanded version of its online guide for business users, which opens up its previously limited/closed advertising products and lets anyone put in a request to buy ads on the service. At the same time, it also represents a significant step for the company in terms of offering a formal and […]
Matt McGee on December 14, 2010 at 11:25 pm
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twitter-business
Twitter has just launched an expanded version of its online guide for business users, which opens up its previously limited/closed advertising products and lets anyone put in a request to buy ads on the service. At the same time, it also represents a significant step for the company in terms of offering a formal and cohesive suite of products for the business community.

In a nutshell, Twitter is saying, “We’re open for business.”

The new site, which is available at /business.twitter.com, is simply called “Twitter for Business.” It appears to have some of the same content as the Twitter 101 business guide that was launched in July 2009, which (for now, at least) can still be reached at business.twitter.com/twitter101.

But, out of several new additions, the most noteworthy is a Start Advertising form that lets anyone contact Twitter with an interest in advertising on the site.

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Twitter’s ad products — Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets, and Promoted Trends — have previously been limited to a small group of test advertisers. And Twitter has been especially cautious in rolling out those products widely across its platform. This move signals that Twitter is ready to take another step — perhaps “leap” would be more accurate — in opening up its ad products to a wider group of advertisers. Noteworthy form fields include one that asks for an estimated budget (as seen in the screenshot above), and one that asks how soon you want to start advertising; choices include 1-4 weeks, 1-3 months, and 3+ months.

Also of note is the inclusion of Twitter’s first official reveal of its analytics dashboard, which the company says provides “in-depth insight into both paid and unpaid activity on Twitter.”

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Overall, the new Twitter for Business is an impressive piece of marketing. Whereas the company has generally been quiet and somewhat secretive about its business-related services, this signifies a more serious approach to its advertising capabilities. In a sense, too, it’s something of a rebuttal to the long-running complaint/joke that Twitter doesn’t have a business plan.